plus, president obama has got a tool that president obama johnson did not have, a weapon. which was to use the state of the union really to set this out for americans. johnson and earlier presidents gave these speeches in the afternoon. they didn't get much attention. if you would have had that pew poll that you mentioned a moment ago, i doubt many americans would have had an opinion, one way or the other. tonight, needless to say, this is going to be a big effort for president obama to reach a lot of americans. >> and one thing that "the new york times" has pointed out, that normally the state of the union is to categorize our strength, the state of our union, they always use the word "strong," at least, we've seen that used -- >> they use it strong, unless they've just come into office, oftentimes, then they say it's not very good, but the fault of the previous guy. >> in "the new york times," they say it's strong, stronger, strongest, one of those words has been used to describe the union in each of the last 17 state of the union addresses. but you're saying that's how